For Joseph Farnes, a senior religion major, Lent is a time to find “deliciousness in the rest of creation.” Though Lent is a time of fasting and general sorrow, it is also an extremely important time for Christians as many feel it can lead to a more fulfilling relationship with God. The spirit behind Lent might be something that those of us who do not consider ourselves Christian can learn from and bring into our lives in one way or another.
Lent is most often associated with abstaining from some sort of food or behavior. For many people it means giving up a favorite food or food group, such as sweets. For Catholics it means leaving meat out of Friday meals. In some Eastern churches all members of the church basically become vegan for the season, and will even leave olive oil out of their cooking.
Though this fasting is supposed to relate to the 40 days that Christ spent fasting in the desert, it also has many other functions for the people that I talked to about it. A couple people felt that it was a way of testing and challenging themselves and their habits. Mary Simpson-Stanton, a senior sociology major, said that she first became a vegetarian during Lent and that she had used it as a sort of testing ground.
Besides just sacrificing, Lent is also a time to work on bettering yourself. For Christians this means trying to make one’s life right with God, including extra prayer, as well as introspection and penance. Some of the people that I talked to said that Lent is a time to renew their faith, and pay more attention to things like morning and evening prayers that can sometimes become automatic.
Along those same lines, by sacrificing something that they very much enjoy all the people I talked to said that they often began to appreciate it more, or find new things that they also enjoy.
I feel that these sorts of ideas: challenging our lives, trying to make ourselves better and finding enjoyment in the things that we often take advantage of: are things that we can all probably learn to do better. Though Lent has solely Christian connotations, denying ourselves some of the earthly pleasures we enjoy on a regular basis can perhaps help our lives in secular ways as well.
Food is an area that people often try to challenge themselves in, mostly through dieting. I feel that when we are dieting we are so worried about the foods that we have put in the “bad” column that we tend to demonize them, rather than admitting they are enjoyable and that we should perhaps just eat them less often. Maybe if we just took the thing we considered “bad” and gave them up for 40 days, we would appreciate them more at the end, but also realize that there are so many other things that we also enjoy to eat.
Self-improvement, for whatever reason, is a task that we all strive to, whether consciously or not, every day. Concentrating especially on your daily habits and how they relate to your religiosity, spirituality or greater place in the world (however you like to think about it) is perhaps something we do less often. Too much of the time our self-improvement is related to gaining something on a more selfish level. We are trying to get fit so we can attract that special someone, we are studying hard so we can get a good grade. It is far less often that we spend a large period of time just trying to concentrate on expanding or improving our relationship to a higher power or higher calling.
All of the things involved in Lent, or any other similar religious season, renewal is often a big theme. Since Lent actually precedes the resurrection, a true example of renewal this is especially apt. Since it is springtime, a natural time of renewal for all of us, this may be a great time to look at the things you eat, do and think on a regular basis and consider what you might be missing or taking advantage of.
